This invention pertains to casino gaming, in general, and to a casino card game, in particular.
Casino card games having a jackpot feature have become common practice. Several different card games have been developed for casino application in which a progressive jackpot feature is added to increase the attractiveness of the game for players. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,861,041; 4,836,553, 5,288,077 and 5,364,105 describe card games having a progressive jackpot feature. Each of the games described in these patents has the common feature that a player wagers a first bet or ante to participate in the card game and must wager a separate second bet to participate in a jackpot feature of the game. Thus, the participation in the jackpot is always optional.
After the player has wagered the two bets, the cards are dealt. The player looks at his cards and must decide to either fold his cards, in which case, the player loses both his ante and second bets, or wage another bet which is a multiple of the first bet. If the player's hand beats the dealer's hand, the player wins an amount which is determined by the rank of his hand according to the game being played. If the player's hand is a predetermined rank, the player wins a portion of a progressive jackpot. The amount of money in the jackpot is determined by the number of players which have paid the optional second wager to participate in the jackpot. The second wagers for each hand are added to the jackpot.
In previous progressive jackpot metering and display arrangements have been utilized in the past in a particular form of a game known as Caribbean Stud. In those prior arrangements, a single progressive jackpot is utilized. Each player who desires to participate in the jackpot component must place a coin or token in an activating slot on the gaming table.